The present invention relates to water treatment in general, and, in particular, to a reclamation process particularly for use in hospital and health care laundry facilities for the removal of solids from laundry wash water and the sterilization of the water.
In many areas of the country the cost of water and its availability make it necessary to conserve this resource as much as possible. In addition, sewage facilities are often overtaxed. Accordingly, it is becoming the practice to recycle or reclaim water for reuse.
Hospital and health care laundries use a considerable amount of water. This water becomes dirty because of soil, in solid form, from the wash. For water reclamation in such facilities, it is necessary to effectively and economically remove a significant amount of the solids from raw wash water. Sterilization of the recycled water is also necessary.
Solids can be removed from laundry water in flotation cells. In a cell solids agglomerate with a flocculating agent and the agglomerates attach to air bubbles. The agglomerates are removed, say, by skimming. Solids can also be removed in a filter which traps the solids and separates them from laundry water. One problem with these removal techniques is that each requires a uniform rate of dirty water input for optimum performance and the dirty water is not generated at the same rate or uniformity. Moreover, and compounding the problem, is the requirement that treated water be available for laundry usage. While the conservation of water is itself laudable, the purity of any water discharged to sewage can also be important.
Water sterilization by such agencies as chlorination, fluoridation, ultraviolet radiation or ozonization is necessary in hospital and health care facilities and is known as such. With chemical agents, time is required for adequate sterilization.